API v1 vs v1r1

What is the deal with /v1 and /v1r1 APIs?

At Help Lightning, we take backwards compatibility serious, and avoid ever changing any of our APIs in a way that would break backward compatibility.

The /v1 API is our initial API. It has almost complete coverage of all of Help Lightning’s features.

The /v1r1 API is a limited API that started as a small revision (revision 1, hence r1) to the /v1 API with the goal of unifying some of our error handling in certain places (which wasn’t compatible with the existing API, thus why it has its own namespace). As Help Lightning grew and our customers’ requirements changed, we also began to make some changes in the /v1r1 API that behaved differently from the /v1 API.

The /v1 and /v1r1 APIs are compatible with each other, in that your application can use a mix of the two. For example, you may use the /v1 API to authenticate, but then use the /v1r1 to get information about your enterprise.

In places where the /v1r1 and /v1 API overlap, Help Lightning recommends using the /v1r1 API, however the decision is up to you. We have attempted to maintain similar endpoints for each version to make it easier to see where they overlap.

Help Lightning is currently working on a /v2 API, that will eventually unify everything in the /v1 and /v1r1 APIs into a single consistent API. At that time, we may consider deprecating both the /v1 and /v1r1 APIs, which just means that they will not be recommended for new development. We will continue to support them.